


For a Song

by Kay (sincere)



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Banter, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-03-18
Updated: 2012-03-18
Packaged: 2017-11-02 02:58:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,475
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/364248
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sincere/pseuds/Kay
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There's actually someone in The World That Never Was other than Demyx who still believes in simple pleasures, like singing, and...</p>
            </blockquote>





	For a Song

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the areyougame prompt at Dreamwidth: "Xigbar/Demyx: Seduced by a song."

It was a sign of how incredibly depressing this whole place was that he almost didn't recognize the sound when he heard it. He lifted his head, frowning, trying to place the strange intonation of voice and lift of breath when he realized, and his eyes widened.

"Holy crap," Demyx breathed. "Someone else in this place knows what music sounds like?!"

He had been in The World That Never Was for so long that its attitude had somehow managed to sink into his very bones. Everything was either black and gloomy and dangerous, or white and austere and distant. It applied not only to the environment but to everyone who lived in it; white, white walls, with black, black monsters, and grim, grim Nobodies.

If he tried to lighten the atmosphere, he was met with irritation. _Stop with that foolishness,_ Xemnas would say, or Saix would snap _Your pointless racket has no place here!_ or Luxord would lean forward with this cool curious flat gaze and ask him, mildly, _It's all academic, really, but -- do you honestly think you actually take any pleasure from playing that instrument?_

They were a group of people who really knew how to kill a man's buzz. The most recent member of their group was Larxene, who Demyx had imagined would be a little less sour as a result of being all new and impressionable, but she had responded to his friendly overtures with a sweet smile and a fistful of knives. He had made his excuses very hurriedly.

So nothing was quite so surprising as hearing that voice, a thick rusty baritone, ringing out from somewhere in the castle.

Someone -- someone in The World That Never Was -- was singing.

Demyx let the voice pull him away from the door to his room, following it down the many wide and empty corridors of the castle; he thought idly, _Man, if some Heartless has learned how to sing properly instead of that terrible trumpeting and jingling those posers usually manage, I will totally take that Heartless home with me, and it will be my new best friend. Screw the rest of these guys._

But he was being led deeper into the castle rather than out of it. He passed down a few flights of stairs, into a basement where some of the blinding white architecture faded into rocky cave walls. Demyx regarded them with interest as he followed the voice, very near now. He'd never been this deep into the castle. He'd sort of assumed that anyplace he hadn't been to already would just be an endless tangle of white walls and tastelessly melodramatic carvings.

The cave tapered into a little underground pool, where Demyx found his mysterious singer.

"Xiggy?" he said, surprised.

Xigbar turned to look over his shoulder. He was in the water hip-deep and that was the only modesty he had; Demyx followed the lines of his thin, tan body, twisted with a myriad of scars, and the cascade of salt-and-pepper hair that hung down his back. It wasn't an unpleasant body to look at, and Demyx wasn't the kind of guy who passed up an opportunity like that.

"Hey, kid," said the older man.

He gave no sign that he'd been doing anything more interesting than taking a midnight swim in a mysterious underground cave. But the singing had stopped.

"Was that you?" Demyx asked, taking a step closer in spite of himself. He wanted to hear it again. "Man! Were you seriously singing in the bath? That is so adorable."

Xigbar threw back his head and laughed, familiar steel-trap laughter somehow strange when he wasn't wearing any clothes. "That's me. Adora-fucking-ble."

"No one's gonna believe you if you say it when you look like that," Demyx joked, but he was taking another step closer, until he was just at the edge of the water. "Hey -- do it again."

"Do what again?" Xigbar looked amused.

"Sing, you jerk!" Demyx folded his arms over his chest, trying to look stern rather than amused. "I can provide musical accompaniment if you want."

Xigbar chuckled again, turning back around and scooping up water to wash himself down. "No can do," he said, cheerfully. "I don't sing for underachievers, dude."

"Your singing's only for the top-tier Nobodies? Come on, man! What's Saix getting from listening to you serenade him? That is totally self-defeating, it rules out your best possible audience," he said in a rush, expressing his disappointment as loudly and as explicitly as he could. Xigbar didn't appear moved by his plight, splashing water onto his face and ignoring him completely.

He hadn't really managed to put him off singing somehow with a silly comment, had he? Demyx eased up, hesitantly relenting, and ventured in a smaller voice, "But it was so good..."

Although it had been husky and unpracticed, it had also been beautiful. Xigbar's voice was raw, confident and proud, and his song had been... warm. Maybe even nostalgic or reassuring. In a lifeless, dead place like Never Was, it had actually meant a lot to hear it.

Xigbar grinned at him, fleetingly. "Don't get all worked up. I'm no singer. You can do your thing, though, if you want."

He was the first Nobody aside from Demyx's own Dancers who'd been accepting of music as something harmless, inoffensive, and fun. But instead of comforting Demyx, it steeled his resolve. Damnit, he was going to return that favor. He was _going_ to hear Xigbar sing.

"You were singing when you thought you were on your own," Demyx pointed out.

His persistence seemed to amuse the sniper. "Don't flatter yourself to think I didn't notice you coming a mile away."

Another handful of water, and this time the liquid spilled down his back, tracing over the curves of lithe muscles, the light playing innocently over his still-smooth skin. It was not the body of a much older man. Demyx watched, hypnotized again for a beat, and then a cunning plan began to form in his mind.

Why not offer a trade and maybe end up with a win-win situation?

"Hey," Demyx said, catching his attention again. "--Is there anything I could offer you that might make you feel like singing?"

He put on his most casual grin and put a hand on his hip. Nothing overt, nothing too tacky; Demyx hated pushy guys. But he was definitely sending out all the right signs, the subtle signals that said, _Available, willing, and interested._

Xigbar picked up on them. His eyebrows shot up, and he said, "Really? I just get to name anything."

"I doubt you can name anything I wouldn't be okay with sharing." The look he was getting was a considering one, so Demyx thought he'd gotten a good foothold and he didn't feel bad about taking it to the next level. He lifted his hands, starting to open the fastenings of his coat. "Why don't you think of something you'd -- like?"

"You're so generous," Xigbar drawled, putting a hand to his hip, but he watched with some interest as Demyx let the coat fall to the ground. "Seriously? You can literally be bought for a song?"

He turned around and flashed another grin, casual and light. "What can I say? I've got my priorities straight."

Demyx didn't even consider it a compromise. He pulled his shirt off over his head and then ducked down to handle the boots.

"I wonder if I should trust you in your element," Xigbar said instead, turning around to face him properly. He certainly didn't seem to be resistant, although knowing Xigbar, it was entirely possible that he might actually be playing along solely for the purpose of letting him down when he was bored of the joke. Heartless, and all.

"We're _always_ in your element," Demyx countered with a laugh. He was down to his pants then, and he stepped into the water deliberately, one step after the other, slow and steady, watching Xigbar for his cues.

For a long moment it seemed like he wasn't going to react at all, and then Xigbar's lips curved up, and he -- hummed.

It was the same melody as before, dark and easy and playful. Demyx felt it shiver over his skin and he moved more quickly, grinning in response to Xigbar's amused expression. "You've got a real way with words, Xiggy," he said, approving.

He stepped up against Xigbar's body and the older man curled arms around him, lean and wiry and strong and very, very nice to the touch. Demyx brushed a kiss over the his throat, feeling it vibrate under his lips with music, and felt happier than he could remember feeling in a long time, with these very visceral reminders that maybe, just maybe, he wasn't the only person in this damn place who knew how to have a good time.


End file.
